Economics Part 2

Question 1

What is the transcontinental railroad?

Answer 1

(1869) connected the East to West coast, provided faster transportation which lowered the costs or production
created national markets and new towns

Question 2

How did the transcontinental railroad contribute to economic growth?

Answer 2

Stimulated the growth of a huge unified national market for American manufactured goods

Question 3

Who were the sharecropppers?

Answer 3

Former slaves that gave a part of each year’s crop to the landowner and received the rest as payment.

Kept slaves economically dependent.

Question 4

new south

Answer 4

The South after the Civil War, rebuilt railroads, new textile and steel mills and later new industries, such as oil and coal production.

Question 5

Tenant Farmers

Answer 5

Farmers who paid cash to rent land.

Question 6

Capitalism

Answer 6

a business in which many investors own shares (stocks)

Question 7

Two kinds of businesses that speeded the growth of the American industry

Answer 7

1) monopoly

2) conglomerate

Question 8

Monopoly

Answer 8

A company or small group of companies that has complete control over a particular field of business. Public utility companies that provide gas or water are examples of current day monopolies.

Question 9

conglomerate

Answer 9

A corporation that owns a group of unrelated companies.

Achieved through mergers.

Question 10

Example of Monopoly

Answer 10

E.C Knight Sugar Company (late 1800s)

Question 11

Example of conglomerate

Answer 11

General Electric

Question 12

Vertical trusts

Answer 12

controlled all aspects of the production from beginning to sale

Question 13

Horizontal trusts

Answer 13

grouped related industries for maximum profits

Question 14

Pool

Answer 14

Competing companies in one field entered into agreements to fix prices and divide business.

Question 15

Trust

Answer 15

A group of corporations in the same field sometimes agreed to combine under a single board of trustees that controlled the actions of all the member corporations.

Question 16

Holding Company

Answer 16

a company created to buy and possess the shares of other companies, which it then controls

Question 17

Andrew Carnegie

Answer 17

Pioneer of the steel industry, sold his steel company for billions of dollars and gave millions to charities. He created the idea of free public libraries across our country.

Question 18

John D. Rockefeller

Answer 18

Oil refining businessman who used ruthless methods to eliminate competitors. His company, Standard Oil Company controlled over 90% of American oil refining.

Question 19

J. Pierpont Morgan

Answer 19

This man earned his money by making loans to businesses.

He took over many bankrupt RR and reorganized them & made a profit. He also controlled electrical, insurance, and shipping companies.

Question 20

Henry Ford

Answer 20

Revolutionized auto-making by using a moving assembly line that permitted the mass production of cars significantly lowering the cost of production. He also paid workers higher wages and set a standard that enabled laborers to afford such purchases.

Question 21

Interstate Commerce Act

Answer 21

This act set up an agency that ended railroad abuses. This act set a precedent for federal regulation of interstate commerce.

Question 22

What factors led the government toward regulating business in the late 1800s?

Answer 22

• periodic downturns in the national economy
• growing criticism of practices that saw big business profit at the expense of the poor/working class
• increasing grassroots political pressure for change

Question 23

Sherman Antitrust Act

Answer 23

The act prohibited monopolies by declaring illegal any business combination or trust in “restraint of trade or commerce.”

Question 24

Collective Bargaining

Answer 24

Union members representing workers negotiated labor issues with management. A united group would put pressure on management to achieve their goals.

Question 25

Knights of Labor

Answer 25

This group welcomed skilled and unskilled workers as well as women and African Americans. The Knights fought for broad social reforms such as an 8 hr day for workers, end to child labor, & equal opportunities & wages for women.

Question 26

American Federation of Labor

Answer 26

Samuel Gompers formed the AFL. This was a collection of many different craft unions, unions of skilled workers in similar trades. They fought for better wages, hours and working conditions.

Question 27

International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union

Answer 27

This union was formed to represent the laborers who worked in sweatshops.

Question 28

Great Railway Strike

Answer 28

a series of pay cuts for railroad workers led to a strike that spread across several states

Question 29

Haymarket Riot

Answer 29

100,000 workers rioted in Chicago.

bomb exploded, killing or injuring many of the police.

The Chicago workers and the man who set the bomb were immigrants, so the incident promoted anti-immigrant feelings.

Question 30

Homestead Strike

Answer 30

It was one of the most violent strikes in U.S. history. It was against the Homestead Steel Works, which was part of the Carnegie Steel Company, in Pennsylvania in retaliation against wage cuts.

Question 31

Pullman Strike

Answer 31

Another railway strike where the government had to intervene. Grover Cleveland sent in federal troops to end the strike.

Question 32

Lawrence Textile Strike

Answer 32

What was a strike of immigrant workers in Massachusetts in 1912 led by the Industrial Workers of the World sometimes called the Bread and Roses strike.